Trump's attacks on the GOP's most prominent Latina should alarm Republicans

A protester is taunted by Trump supporters as he is removed during a speech by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuesday, May 24, 2016.

Photo: Brennan Linsley, AP

During a 65-minute speech in Albuquerque Tuesday night, Donald Trump laced into New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. He blamed her for the state's economic problems, for the growing number of food stamp recipients and for not doing more to reject Syrian refugees. The billionaire even mused about moving to the state to run for governor himself.

"She's got to do a better job," Trump told thousands of supporters, per The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson. "She's not doing the job. We've got to get her moving. Come on: Let's go, governor."

Martinez's press secretary, Mike Lonergan, responded with a blistering statement: "Apparently, Donald Trump doesn't realize Governor Martinez wasn't elected in 2000, that she has fought for welfare reform, and has strongly opposed the President's Syrian refugee plan. But the pot shots weren't about policy, they were about politics. And the Governor will not be bullied into supporting a candidate . . . Governor Martinez doesn't care about what Donald Trump says about her - she cares about what he says he will do to help New Mexicans. She didn't hear anything about that today."

1. The riff underscored the hollowness of Trump's promises to unite the fractured Republican Party. He has routinely attacked GOP governors this year. Recall his criticisms of Scott Walker before Wisconsin's primary or Nikki Haley before South Carolina's. But this is the first time he's done so as the presumptive nominee of his party. And this is not just any chief executive. Martinez is the chair of the Republican Governors Association, one of the party's most important organs.

2. Attacking the most prominent Latina in his party will make Hispanic outreach even harder. There are many conservative Latinos who might be willing to hear Trump out, even if they are uneasy with his talk about the border wall and Mexican immigrants being rapists. But showing disrespect for conservative leaders in the community - mixed with tone-deaf outreach (taco salads!) - means that whatever else he may have to say will fall on deaf ears.

3. Tuesday night's rally further illustrates why Trump is on track to get clobbered among women. Martinez is not just Hispanic; she's also the first female governor of New Mexico. Tellingly, she was not the only target of Trump's ire. Several other women were in his crosshairs, as well, and his language was quite gendered.

Trump called Hillary a "low-life" and then went on to imitate the way she talks, raising his voice to a high-pitched yell. "I will never say this but she screams and drives me crazy," Trump said. "I can't listen."

He once again referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as "Pocahontas," a reference to her claims of Native American heritage. "She is probably the senator that's doing just about the least in the United States Senate," he said. "She's a total failure. She said she was an Indian. She said because her cheekbones were high, she was an Indian."

The most offensive language, though, came from one of the warm-up speakers. David Chavez, a former state lawmaker, compared voting for Clinton because she's a woman to drinking bleach because it looks like water. "I've heard people say: I don't know who to choose: Trump or Hillary. Even Bill Clinton chose other women. So you should, too," Chavez said. (Jenna, our reporter in the room, says the crowd laughed and applauded. . .)

4. Even with the nomination wrapped up, Trump remains thin-skinned and lacks self-discipline.

Martinez has been publicly non-committal about whether she will back Trump, repeatedly dodging the question by saying that she will not vote for Hillary. She told local press that she skipped Tuesday night's rally because she's "really busy."

Privately, she's been more critical. At a fundraiser in the Palm Beach mansion of billionaire David Koch last month, a donor asked about Trump. Martinez acknowledged being deeply offended by Trump's language about immigrants. "Noting her years working as a prosecutor on the Mexican border and now as a border-state governor, Martinez said Trump's plan to build a wall and force Mexico to pay for it was unrealistic and irresponsible," sources told The Post's Matea Gold and Philip Rucker afterward.

Trump was obviously irked by these and other comments, which is the only plausible explanation for why he went after Martinez.

Having a stiff upper lip is required of politicians at this level. There are many Democrats who the Clintons dislike, but they carefully avoid saying so in public. Mitt Romney, John McCain and George W. Bush all had to play nice with elements of the party that vociferously opposed them in the primaries. This is not just something you can do for a day or a week. He wears his heart on his sleeve-which makes him attractive to some voters-but makes him an ineffective party healer in this moment.

Trump shows flashes of self-discipline. Then he backslides. That's not the way to win.

5. Party unity is further out of reach than conventional wisdom suggests.

One of the reasons so many GOP elites have rallied around Trump is early polls showing he's locked in a competitive horse race with Hillary Clinton. Those surveys lessen the trepidation. In this very vein, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus tried to reassure GOP senators during a private lunch Tuesday that Trump being at the top of the ticket won't be so bad after all. But lashing out at Martinez offers a guttural reminder that the bottom really could still fall out from underneath Trump, and he could become a colossal drag.

Citing sources close to the speaker, Bloomberg reported Tuesday night that "Paul Ryan has begun telling confidants that he wants to end his standoff with Trump in part because he's worried the split has sharpened divisions in the Republican Party." While Ryan aides say nothing has been decided about a possible endorsement, Bloomberg says Trump adviser Paul Manafort told a small group of Republican lawmakers that he expects Ryan to endorse as early as this week. You have to imagine the Martinez comments give him at least some pause or second thoughts.

Meanwhile, John Kasich said Tuesday that "it may not be possible" for him to ever endorse Trump. The Ohio governor said he cannot support The Donald with his current negativity, scapegoating and willingness to "run people into the ditch." "Unless I see a fundamental change in that approach, it's really hard for me to do a merger," he told the Columbus Dispatch in his Capitol office. "Think of it as a merger of two companies. If the values are not somewhat similar, if the culture is not somewhat similar, it's pretty hard to do a merger."

This is not just a disgruntled ex-opponent; he is the governor of a must-win swing state.

6.Trump's willingness to go after Republicans who aren't getting on board showcases the perils for GOP candidates who distance themselves.

Want to see a Republican senator duck and run? Ask them about Trump. The Post's Sean Sullivan tried to ask every vulnerable incumbent whether they'd campaign with their party's nominee. The reactions and non-answers say as much as the quotes.

Republicans in the Capitol and on the campaign trail will this week be asked whether they agree with Trump's attacks on Martinez.

The risk they face is that Trump will begin attacking them in their home state if they, like Martinez, express discomfort with his controversial positions. And this could turn off base voters.

7. As Trump snipes at fellow Republicans, he continues to galvanize the left. Albuquerque police donned riot gear to disband a group of protestors who became violent. Rocks and bottles were thrown at officers. Several were injured in the fracas, and at least one rioter was arrested, per The Post's Kayla Epstein and Katie Mettler. While many progressives may not be enthused about Clinton at the top of the ticket, the scene outside offered another reminder of how much Trump gins up the Democratic grassroots.

More broadly, there are festering doubts about whether Trump can get his act together. "The internal struggle for control of Trump's presidential campaign is getting personal, with allies of feuding campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and chairman Paul Manafort increasingly turning to shadowy tactics to try to sully their rivals," Politico reports Tuesday morning. "Supporters and opponents of Lewandowski say he and his allies have called Trump's attention to articles chronicling lobbying work done by Manafort or his campaign associates for a gambling company, as well as politically problematic foreign clients . . . [Meanwhile], an ally of Manafort's said Lewandowski 'takes all the bad news up to Trump - 'Paul represented this person, Paul represented that person.' . . . 'It's a total cage fight in there now,' said an operative . . . 'Manafort tried to take out Corey, but he didn't succeed. And now, everywhere Corey looks, he sees a threat, so he's trying to neutralize those threats.'"